ALBUMSREVIEWS 7.0
Abe Duque Rules For the Modern DJ Abe Duque Records A lesson in techno purism from El Duque
Erstwhile DJ at New York’s storied Limelight Club, there’s a purist streak that runs mile-wide through the work of Abe Duque. You want rules, modern DJ? According to his seventh record, they may as well be: 1. Get a 303 and, 2. A time machine. This is largely anachronistic ‘90s machine funktionalism, from the astringent acid house of ‘With His Music’ to ‘Diabeto’s slick warehouse minimalism. Perhaps the secret to why this works can be found in ‘L.O.V.E.’, a chunky house track that refreshes the clichés through the fact that Duque is not only fluent in the form, but absolutely in love with it. While ‘Rules For The Modern DJ’ is hardly boundary-breaking in its obsession with terrain that was refined, arguably perfected, years ago, this wide-eyed enthusiasm for analogue dance music is difficult to argue with. Louise Brailey
Minilogue Blomma Cocoon Internal Minilogue
‘Blomma’, which means ‘to bloom,’ is an album that sounds like it was made in the woods of Sweden as a stream- of-consciousness exercise in capturing both its surroundings and immediate human response. No surprises, then, that Minilogue recorded this LP as a series of improvisations, sans any editing or post- production, in the forests north of Malmö. Marcus Henriksson and Sebastian Mullaert draw on elements of jazz, ambient, techno and classical music to create glacial soundscapes that shimmer with emotional and sonic resplendence. Wind chimes and field recordings of birds draw the listener even further into the creative hinterland the duo record in. ‘Everything Is All You’ve Got’, ‘Atoms With Curiosity That Looks At Itself & Wonder Why it Wonders’, and ‘Evaporerar Ut Från Sitt Gömställe’ stand out as club tracks, but they still utilise many of the lush pads, nature sounds and freeform structures that enhance and define ‘Blomma’. Zara Wladawsky
8.0
Benga Chapter II Columbia Turning the page
Back in 2008, Benga’s ‘Night’ tune with Coki made him one of the few dubstep artists anyone outside of Croydon had heard of. Now — after Magnetic Man topping the charts and his Radio 1 show with Skream — he’s the dubstep artist even your mum knows. Not that she’d find much to love about Beni Adejumo’s second album, since — even though Benga’s taken a much poppier song- based direction here — some fairly lairy raps from Kano and P-Money and the gut-twisting basslines still make ‘Chapter II’ ruder than talking with your mouth full. Even less likely to be impressed are the dubstep purists who will probably be whispering ‘it’s a bit Skrillex’ under their breath when they hear the overloads of ravey pianos and shrieking electro, but then this really isn’t designed for them, but for the EDM kids packing the stadiums on which Benga obviously has his eye. Paul Clarke
6.0 8.0
Alix Perez Chroma Chords Shogun Audio Life after drum & bass
Over the course of his eight-year career, Alix Perez made his name with razor- sharp, melodically-deft drum & bass that managed to please dancefloor and armchair fans in equal measure — a rare feat indeed. On his second album, however, Perez appears to be distancing himself from the genre he came up in: of the 12 tracks here, just three are drum & bass, and if truth be told, they’re the least interesting of the bunch. For the bulk of the album, Perez blends the hallucinogenic edits of James Blake, the knackered-synth melodies of Crystal Castles, the chilly minimalism of dBridge and the brutalist electronic hip-hop of El-P. Foreign Beggars, Jehst and Riko Dan swing by to add some UKHH ruggedness to proceedings, but it’s Perez’s instinctive, boundary-trouncing production that’s the real star here. Turns out those 170bpm beats were just holding him back. Joe Madden
Classixx
Hanging Gardens Innovative Leisure
8.0 Marmite nu-disco
DESPITE dotting about the shadowy corners of the internet since the mid ‘00s, LA’s Classixx are still a duo short of household status, despite producing some of the catchiest, most accessible disco-pop there is. Their debut album, however, is destined to change that. Through Italo-pop remixes of Holy Ghost and Phoenix, and the odd electronic soul mix surfacing on blogs, Classixx carved out a tidy little nu-disco niche for themselves over the years. ‘Hanging Gardens’ dares not deviate. Sceptics among us may curse its timing,
citing a synth-pop heyday arguably passed (circa 2008). Those even more cynical might write off ‘Holding On’ — with its skweee keytar and vocoder vocals — as an attempt to tap Daft Punk hysteria with an effort ripped from a ‘Discovery’ instruction manual. But it’s a formula few will resist. The opening title track is likely to draw another divide. Sampling the Balearic cosmos of ‘Seven Wonders’ (Fleetwood Mac) is hardly envisioned for the heads, but done with enough grace to bother even the most
stiff-lipped anoraks. Elsewhere, ‘All You’re Waiting For’, featuring Nancy Whang on vocals, is more saccharine synth-pop in true Classixx style, while ‘Rhythm Santa Clara’ is the darker, funky techno tacking used in the duo’s hotchpotch DJ sets, before ‘Dominoes’ opens out into a sunshine piano house riff a la Pet Shop Boys (1988). A smorgasbord of disco-pop treats to love here, providing snootiness stays at the door. Adam Saville
djmag.com 073
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92